You are here

Dutch shift focus in MH17 crash to investigating culprits

Fri, Apr 17, 2015 - 12:15 AM

[THE HAGUE] The Dutch government said on Thursday that, with nearly all of the victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 identified, efforts had shifted to finding those responsible for shooting the plane down as it crossed Ukraine last July.

Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said, after meeting counterparts from Malaysia, Ukraine and Australia on the sidelines of a cyber-security conference in The Hague, that there was agreement on pushing ahead with justice.

"Now that we're very far with repatriation (of the victims'remains), investigation and prosecution are becoming more central," Mr Koenders said in a statement.

"The ministers believe that prosecution is not only important for the countries with victims onboard. Civil aviation is vulnerable and every safety violation is a concern shared worldwide."